Optical fiber transmission is becoming more common, and finds use in vehicles such as aircraft. When used for important missions, as for example for flight control of aircraft, or for military communications purposes, it is important that connections between a fiber optic cable and a structural member, such as a bulkhead, remain intact notwithstanding severe shock and tensile loading.
In general, important communications or control functions will require a multiplicity of optical fiber paths. When such multiple optical fibers extend from one portion of a vehicle to another, each fiber must extend from a source "box" within the aircraft, through its side or "bulkhead," to the terminus box, and through its side or bulkhead to the interior of the terminus box. Other bulkheads may be traversed in going from one box to the other. In order to reduce weight, and to reduce the number of penetrations of the bulkheads and the concomitant connectors which must be provided, an optical fiber cable will often include a plurality or bundle of optical fibers, surrounded by a common tensile strength member such as an aramid fiber fabric. The aramid fabric may include only longitudinal filaments, or it may be a braid or weave. An inexpensive and convenient apparatus is desired which can readily provide reliable connection of such a cable to a bulkhead through which optical fiber paths pass.